Bar Pica, Rome's Best Gelato?

Arancina Bomba
The Arancina Bomba is a fried rice ball bomb. Imagine a softball-sized wad of rice packed with meat and peas, rolled in bread crumbs and deep fried to a golden hue. The name could not be more appropriate, as in Italian bomba is a word used to describe something heavy and fattening. For example, “that sack of mozzarella filled with cream was a bomba. Last week I indulged in the Arancina Bomba at Bar Touring in Palermo. I had

Fried Cardoons in Palermo’s Ballaro’ Market
It’s that time of year again: cardoon season. I spied them for the first time this fall a couple of weeks ago in the Testaccio Market in Rome where the raw plants were being sold by the bundle. On Friday in Palermo’s Ballaro’ Market, I saw two cooked incarnations of the vegetable. Boiled cardoons were sold from large aluminum pots and fried cardoons were sold at the panelle vendor’s stall. Guess which on

The Original Ice Cream Sandwich
During a three day trip to Palermo, I managed to get in nine desserts, including two Setteveli, some frutta martorana, and gelato con brioche. The latter is essentially a big ice cream sandwich. Leave it to the siciliani to fill pastry with gelato. They really do have a knack for making fattening things even more caloric. At O

Reason Number 349 I Love Palermo
Because when you walk through the Capo Market and pull your camera out to photograph a man with half a cow slung over his shoulder, you get the strange looks, not him.

Frutta Martorana, Palermo’s Famous Marzipan
When you think of food and Christianity, it is items mentioned in the Old and New Testaments like figs, olives, fish, and bread that spring to mind. But at La Martorana in Palermo, food without a biblical precursor is synonymous with the church. Marzipan (aka pasta reale and pasta di mandorla) was formed into the shape of fruits by the convent’s cloistered nuns. Dubbed Frutta Martorana these sweets were made from a mixture of almonds and sugar, a recip